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Constance Hatchaway
“...till death do us part” - Constance Hatchaway ”''Here comes the bride”'' -Constance Hatchaway Constance Hatchaway '''(aka '''The Black Widow Bride) is one of the ghostly characters in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. Her presence is the most dangerous and vilainous in the ride, being the ghost of a bride with a murderous past. She was voiced by Kat Cressida and portrayed by Julia Lee. Redesign The original Attic area feature black lights and shrunken voodoo heads that would occasionally spring out to scare visitors. The Bride would be swaying in the corner with a beating red heart seen within her. This was later changed to remove the heads and replace the Bride with a heroic character. In May 2006, the Bride (now named Constance Hatchaway) and the Attic were redesigned to include new effects and introduce a darker storyline. This included scattered and stacked wedding gifts along with portraits of the redesigned Bride and her husbands. However, in each portrait, the husband's head would disappear and the Bride's voice would admit to beheading them. The Doom Buggies would then head for the window, where the Bride would be standing, reciting her wedding vows while a hatchet materialized and vanished in her hands. The Doom Buggy then goes out the window to the Graveyard, implying escaping from the ghost. Background While her full backstory purposefully remains a mystery, parts of it are known. Constance Hatchaway was a beautiful woman who many men fell in love with. However, Constance herself was a gold digger who wanted nothing more than to be wealthy (presumably as a result of a poor childhood). To accomplish this, she married several wealthy men, including bankers, businessmen, farmers, and barons. However, she would then proceed to behead them with her hatchet and inherit all of their wealth. Despite her crime, the public never placed her as a suspect, though they did dub her "The Black Widow Bride". Husbands * Ambrose Harper (married in 1869) * Frank Banks (married in 1872) * The Marquis de Doom (married in 1874) * Reginald Caine (married in 1875) * George Hightower (married in 1877) Her last husband was George Hightower, the owner of the titular mansion after William Gracey, who found out about her killings shortly before the wedding. After their marriage, Constance found out her husband's secret and had to dispose of him quickly. She proceeded to kill him by striking his head with her hatchet, but she did not manage to behead him. After murdering Hightower, Constance decided that she was satisfied with the wealth she had accumulated and settled down in her newly inherited mansion. She died later of unknown causes, though most speculate that it was old age. The Haunted Mansion After her death, Constance's spirit became enveloped by her sadistic, homicidal side. She became a permanent resident of the mansion's Attic, standing among her hordes of past wedding gifts and admitting to her crimes. She also became hostile towards any living being that came into the attic, brandishing her hatchet while cryptically repeating her wedding vows. In the ride, the visitors escape her out the window. Before the attic, an elderly Constance can be seen sitting on George Hightower's gravestone in the Stretching Portrait Room. Trivia * She does not appear in the 2003 film based on the ride. * Constance appears in a short stage show at the Disney Parks that was held as a hard ticket event for the Haunted Mansion's 40th anniversary. The show was about her demise and shed some light upon the subject, but was gleefully inconsistent with the Stretching Portrait, since it featured her dying pretty young. It is generally considered non-canonical due to this. * One of her husbands, Frank Banks, is the coffin occupant in The Conservatory. * Constance placed #1 on "Top 10 OTHER Disney Villains" list by Animat of ElectricDragonProductions. * Constance is removed from the Nightmare Before Christmas themed Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay every Halloween and Christmas and replaced by a giant snake with Jack's naughty-or-nice list in its mouth and the long-lost Hatbox Ghost. All of her gifts are also replaced with Jack Skellington's Christmas presents. * In some merchandise and in The Haunted Mansion: The Black Widow Bride, Constance is portrayed with a beating heart like the past incarnations of the Bride character. However, the actual version in the Mansion and in continuity does not have this. Category:Characters Category:Villains Category:Ghosts Category:The Haunted Mansion characters Category:Females